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Hepatitis C tests continue after tech's arrest

By Holly Ramer, Associated Press,

Posted:
12/23/2012 12:02:25 AM EST

Updated:
12/23/2012 12:06:34 AM EST

State health department workers set up a clinic in August in Stratham, N.H. Five months after a traveling hospital worker’s arrest, a dozen former patients have tested positive for hepatitis C he’s accused of spreading with thousands more yet to be tested. (Associated Press file)

CONCORD, N.H. -- Hospitals across the country recommended hepatitis C testing for about 7,900 patients last summer after a traveling medical worker was accused of stealing drugs and infecting patients with tainted syringes in New Hampshire. But five months later, nearly half of those who were possibly exposed to the liver-destroying disease in other states have yet to be tested.

Described by prosecutors as a "serial infector," David Kwiatkowski is accused of stealing syringes of the powerful painkiller fentanyl from the cardiac catheterization lab at New Hampshire's Exeter Hospital and replacing them with saline-filled syringes tainted with his own blood. In jail since his arrest in July, he pleaded not guilty to 14 federal drug charges earlier this month and is expected to go to trial next fall.

Before April 2001, when he was hired in New Hampshire, Kwiatkowski worked as a traveling cardiac technologist in 18 hospitals in seven states, moving from job to job -- despite being fired twice over allegations of drug use and theft.

Thirty-two people in New Hampshire have been diagnosed with the same strain of hepatitis C that Kwiatkowski carries, along with six in Kansas, five in Maryland and one in Pennsylvania. At least 3,700 people outside New Hampshire have yet to be tested, hospitals and public health officials told The Associated Press.

In Michigan, where Kwiatkowski began his career, about 2,300 patients at five hospitals were notified that they may have been exposed to hepatitis C by Kwiatkowski.

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As of early December, only about 500 had gone in for testing, none of whom were diagnosed with a strain linked to the New Hampshire outbreak, according to the Michigan Department of Community Health.

In Pennsylvania, 2,280 patients at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Presbyterian were notified that they should get tested, but only 840 have, one of whom was diagnosed with a matching strain of hepatitis C.

Kwiatkowski was fired a few weeks into his temporary job at UPMC in 2008 after a co-worker accused him of swiping a fentanyl syringe from an operating room and sticking it down his pants. Within days, Kwiatkowski was starting a new job at the Baltimore VA Medical Center, where one patient also has since been diagnosed with hepatitis C linked to Kwiatkowski. Though the VA center initially said it had identified 168 patients who may have been exposed, that number was later lowered, and 68 patients ultimately were tested. Two other Maryland hospitals have completed their testing, with no diagnosed cases of hepatitis C matching Kwiatkowski. But at the fourth, The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, four patients have been diagnosed with the strain of disease linked to Kwiatkowski.

Saint Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where Kwiatkowski worked in late 2007 and early 2008, notified and tested 31 patients without finding any linked cases. In Kansas, nearly all of the 416 patients who may have been exposed at Hays Medical Center have been tested and six have been diagnosed with infections linked to the New Hampshire outbreak.

There have been no cases linked to Kwiatkowski in Arizona, where about 300 patients from two hospitals have been asked to get tested. Kwiatkowski worked at Maryvale Hospital in Phoenix in 2009 and the Arizona Heart Hospital in 2010. He was fired from the latter job after a co-worker found him passed out in a bathroom with a stolen fentanyl syringe floating in the toilet.

Days later, Kwiatkowski landed a job filling in for striking technicians at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. That hospital has recommended testing for 312 patients. Testing also is still under way in the last place Kwiatkowski worked before heading to New Hampshire -- Houston Medical Center in Warner Robins, Ga. According to the hospital, fewer than 100 people have yet to be tested, and there haven't been any cases yet linked to Kwiatkowski.

In New Hampshire Kwiatkowski is charged with seven counts of illegally obtaining drugs and seven counts of tampering with a consumer product. Prosecutors have said further charges are possible. Although New Hampshire cannot charge him for possible violations in other states, it can use evidence gathered in those jurisdictions in its trial, U.S. Attorney John Kacavas said. Other states are waiting for the outcome of New Hampshire's case before deciding whether to file charges, he said.

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